that as we open the word today
that we've come prepared. And you probably hear that kind
of stuff in different seasons of life. Are you prepared? Are you prepared? And I think
the reality of preparedness is expectation. What are we expecting? When we
gather together on the Lord's Day and we hear the word read
to us, when we sing the truth of Christ, it's interesting as
I read out of John 13 this morning and then we sing this first song
that we sang out of the hymnal, that it just recapitulates the
very thing that Jesus is talking about. And so when we see the
instructions of the scripture about what we are to do when
we come together in the gathering, as the Saints, as a covenant
family of faith, we sing and encourage and pray and praise
and hear and learn and then lean on this learning and lean on
these graces, if we can say those things in understanding, that
allow us to be the people of Christ in the world that is not
of Him. Allow us to not fall prey to
the norms of the culture to the religiosity, but we are able
to really become Christ followers in simplicity and purity. Not imposing on each other our
ideologies or our politics or our morals or our ethics, but
rather holding fast to the clarity of what scripture teaches. and loving each other unconditionally
therein. Today, I will finish up my little
beautiful church mini-subseries out of the mini-series out of
the series of 1 Timothy. And I want to talk today about
biblical fellowship. Because I believe part of the
church being the buttress of the truth, the house of God,
the family of faith, And the instruction that we're going
to see, you know, moving into September, Paul teaching the
elders, Timothy and the subsequent elders of all history to instruct
the church in, we need to recognize what we're being taught to do
as individual believers and what we're being taught to do as corporate
believers and how those things are supposed to be understood
and applied in our lives. Fellowship is one of those words,
and you've heard me talk about it before. So we've already had
other things that I want to say that I've already talked about.
For example, prayer out of 1 Timothy chapter 1, where he says, I instruct
you to pray then for all people, kings and those in high places,
people in authority, all types of people. He's already talked
about worship, about the heart of worship, the reality that
because of what the gospel teaches us and who the gospel is, which
is Jesus Christ the righteous, we are able to come together
as recipients of grace, looking through the lens of grace to
one another in our lives, to not feel as though we're better
than anyone else, but that we are all forgiven by the mercy
of God. through the death and the blood
of Christ. So we worship from that. We show the worth of God
through our life, through our mind, through our actions and
our intentions as we fight the good fight of faith, as we know
that there are spiritual battles going on that are effective against
us because our flesh desires those very things that tempt
us. We see a lot of different things and as the instruction
of the New Testament teaches us, It's very easy to internalize
those things and apply every specific didactic or every specific
instruction to ourselves personally. It's very simple to do this,
very easy to do that, so that God's letter to Timothy becomes
James Tipton's instruction or your instruction. And it is if
we do not lose sight of what the instruction is for and to
whom it is written and to what end it is written. See, if we
start out a journey, if I said to you, okay, are you ready?
I want you to get there in less than four seconds. Ready and
go! Everybody's looking at me like I'm an idiot. Why? Because you don't know where
you're going. There's no instruction prior
to the... You don't know where to go but
if I say to you exit over here to my left, your
right. And as you do that very quickly
on the count of three and then everybody stands up, you know
where you're going. And every path will be different because
every one of you are in a different seat. But the destination is
going to be the same. And we're going to cross paths.
We're going to all be in the same line by the time we get
to the wall on the other side of the room. Beloved, the Bible
in like manner must be understood with clear direction. And so
one of the reasons that I have taken four or five weeks out
to talk about the church and church membership and life together
is so that we keep focused what it is the New Testament is teaching
us. To know that while these are instructions specifically
and authentically to the elders of the church throughout history,
we are also the church and we are getting instruction on how
the elders ought to instruct the church. So you get to have
the teacher's notes, see. Because nothing's hidden in the
economy of grace. Nothing's hidden from the body,
any part. There's no special knowledge
or wisdom that the elders have that the church can't also have. But there is an epidemic of ignorance
when it comes to how to read and simply apply the scripture.
And the Bible teaches us how we should read and apply the
scripture. And beloved, I'll tell you this,
is that, you know, 20 years ago, 15 years ago even, I thought
that the best way to establish that understanding was academia. And then some 16 years later,
I realized, man, I spent a lot of time and money when I could
have just kept reading the Bible. What is the church to do with
fellowship? In the scripture in Hebrews,
Paul instructs the Jewish Christians to not forsake the assembly. Easy prescription. Why? Because in the assembly, in the
discipline, in the obedience of gathering, God's promises
are fulfilled for His church in daily life. There is a very ignorant assumption
that me, myself, and my Bible is sufficient for the graces
of God in the aspects, every aspect of my life. It's not true.
The Bible wasn't written to the individual. The New Testament
wasn't written for the sake of individuality. We learned over
the last few weeks that the body is made up of every part and
every part is the body. And you've heard my ridiculousness
and saying what good is a bag of eyeballs or a bag of toenails?
It's gross. But yet by our individualism,
by our myopic arrogance, so many believers isolate themselves
to the point that they feel superior for they seem purer when they're
rebelling and denying the very promises of Christ for their
lives. Because in some sense they have decided that being
apart from the body for this reason, that reason, or this
person, or that person, you see how antichrist that is? Is better
for them. So we are here to learn. And
Bible stories are important, narratives are important, because
through all of them we get to see Christ in the Gospel, grace,
sovereign and free. We get to see the glory of God
revealed and His sovereignty over every teeny detail of everything. birds coming from one place to
another, a man traveling from here to there, this happening,
that happening, wind, rain, sand, whatever it may be, God is sovereign
and powerful over it all. And these things teach us and
drive us to the reality that we can trust Him and He has revealed
Himself solely and only now through the Word of God for our benefit.
So if the Word of God reveals to us the promises of God are
conditioned upon these things, then we can take it to the bank.
To ignore or to disobey those prescriptions is to say to God,
I know better than you. God have mercy, and He does for
His people. Of how many things just this
week that I have listed in my conscience, that I have better wisdom than
God. concerning. Now don't gasp, because you do
too. We have better wisdom than God
when we refuse to seek his word first. Fellowship is an imperative of
the body. But fellowship is not about getting
together, having fun, and eating. Fellowship can take place in
those things. Fellowship is not about finding
worldly affinities and enjoying the time together. Fellowship
can take place during those things. But the promise of God to His
church, to restore our joy, to teach us how to do the work that
He's called us to do, to be obedient to Him, to learn to love and
to live out life as a family of faith, those things are always
conditioned upon our gathering together each week, at least
during the Lord's Day assembly. Because that's the only compulsory
thing that you have on you, beloved, as far as getting together, is
this. If we do other things, great,
not required. Sometimes can not be beneficial. But if we're not doing this,
then doing anything else is just moot. For the saints. Fellowship is not enjoying time
together as much as we enjoy time together sometimes. I can
enjoy time together with anybody who likes anything that I like.
Is that not true? Total stranger? I would say Walmart
checkout, but I hadn't been to Walmart checkout in a long time.
That's when nine millimeter was like 11 cents a round. Maybe
it was nine cents. But let's just say you're there,
somebody you've never met, somebody you'll never see again. Hey,
that's a good price, isn't it? Absolutely. Where do you do?
I do that. Well, great. What do you? And you just have
a good time in that three minutes enjoying conversation about things
you love. See you later, liar. Why do we
say that? We're not going to see these
people later. We might see them later at the gas station outside
the store. We might see them later at the grocery store. I started to call it the food
store. At the grocery store. We might see them later when
whatever we bought goes on sale again. But we enjoy the time. I had a great conversation. I
had a great opportunity. I had a great experience. We
can go to the movie theater and we can all clap at the end, not
ever seeing the face of the person that was with us. That's not
fellowship. But we can enjoy the time. So
fellowship is not about enjoying the time. Fellowship isn't even
about loving one another emotionally, loving one another. in a sense of caring or empathy. Though true fellowship requires
empathy and love because it's the motivating force behind the
actions, or for the actions, of the actions,
it's not the point. The point in true fellowship
according to the scripture is this. Turn to Acts chapter 2. And there's a lot here, and one
day I want to teach through Acts. I think it would be great. It's
on my calendar. I just don't know if it'll work
out next year or not. I want to start at verse 29 and
go to the end of the chapter, and then we're going to talk
specifically about, you know, the verses from 42 through 47. I think I left off two verses,
the specific two verses that are important in my head, but
here we go. Verse 20, excuse me, yeah. Verse
22. Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested
to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God
did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know, this
Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge
of God, you crucified and you killed by the hands of lawless
men. God raised him up, loosing the
pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held
by it. Why? Because he was not guilty
of sin. For David says concerning him,
quote, I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right
hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore, my heart was glad
and my tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul
to Hades or let your Holy One see corruption. You have made
known to me the paths of life. You will make me full of gladness
with your presence. Brothers, I may say to you with
confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was
buried and his tomb is with us today. Being therefore a prophet,
and knowing that God has sworn with an oath to him that he would
set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke
about the resurrection of the Messiah, the Christ, that he
was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his flesh see corruption.
This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses.
being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having
received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He,
the Messiah Christ, has poured out this for you that you yourselves,
excuse me, has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing
and hearing. For David did not ascend into
the heavens, but he himself says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit
at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has
made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.
Now when they heard this, verse 37, they were cut to the heart. And they said to Peter and the
rest of the apostles, and this is conversation with thousands
of people. It's not like they took turns,
had megaphones, microphones. This is the sentiment, the conversations
that took place amongst the crowd as the apostles and the other
believers were there. Brothers, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, change
your thinking. Repent. That's what that means.
It doesn't mean stop sinning. It has nothing to do with that
in this context here. Though thinking you can get to
heaven through any other means but grace is a sin, in this context,
change the way you're thinking. What question do they ask? What
can we do? He says, you need to change your
mind about that. Be baptized, everyone in you,
in the name of Christ. This is the point of the sermon,
but I have to make it clear. be found immersed in Christ. He wasn't saying you just get
in that water, you're sick. It's not about that water. It's about
the essence of being found in Christ. I read out of John 13,
the Father is in me and I am in the Father. The Spirit is
in you. You are in Christ. We are baptized
into Christ, into the name of Christ for the forgiveness of
your sins. And you will have the paraclete,
the spirit of truth, the gift of God. For this promise is for
you and your children and all who are far off, everyone whom
the Lord our God calls to Himself. So here is the gospel in a nutshell
and public preaching that God will call His people to Himself
where He has promised to them and them alone and their children,
generations of His elect. that salvation is His doing.
And when they are found in Christ, it is that He has called them
to Himself. And in verse 40, here's the reality
of this narrative being so teensy and empty in the vastness of
time, but yet so rich and full in its simplicity. And with many
other words, He bore witness and continued to exhort them.
So He kept preaching and explaining and teaching He says to them, save yourselves
from this crooked generation. What is this crooked generation?
The high religious rulers, the leaders, the Pharisees, the Sadducees,
the Sanhedrin, the priests, the self-righteous. So those who received His word
were baptized, were publicly put into the water as a symbol,
as a picture of dying in Christ and being raised in Christ. And that day were added to their
number around 3000. It's first Baptist church service. They counted everybody. It's
probably only 1,200, but they counted them coming and going,
so they added a little bit for error. 3,000. No, I'm joking.
It's not an exact number. It says about 3,000. So give
or take a few. And this is God saving His people
through the proclamation of the gospel. Something I'm working
on in my own life. Instruction to the elders of
the church, do the work of an evangelist. Always strive to that. Always
sharing the gospel. Numerous times a week. It just
comes natural. It's like preparing for food or washing your clothes.
It's just something you do. Do the work of an evangelist.
It's included in the context and the call of the elders in
their oversight of the church. In their teaching to the church.
It's not like, boom, start playing the piano, now we have our evangelistic
opportunity. That's just not the point. But
to proclaim Christ for the sake of the church is also to proclaim
Christ for the sake of the elect who have not yet come to see. And at the end of all of that,
beloved, we are not lacking in information and training modules
on how to assimilate people into the local church in America.
We are not lacking with experts and pundits who don't even have
a local church family of their own, but they are traveling salesmen
of good... What's the word I'll say here? Snake oil. On how to truly make disciples.
So here's Peter preaching there in Jerusalem having received
the power of the Holy Spirit in the upper room. In unity they go out and proclaim
the gospel. Things have happened. Miracles
have taken place. Power has been visually Observed
the glory of God has been revealed in the death of this son of his
who is now raised to life Walking and talking amongst them and
he ascends and everyone who is remaining goes and tells the
story You see And as the story is told God
is in the business of making his people see and there's no
response necessary Everybody who got saved, raise your hand.
Anybody who wants to be saved, raise your hand. No peeking,
because God knows if you peek, it invalidates your response.
No response necessary. The response is in the life of
the believers. The response is in that which is historically
displayed and then spiritually prescribed through the teachings
of the apostles to the church and to the elders of the church
and to the different types of churches. What happens when someone
comes to be in the body of Christ supernaturally and spiritually,
when they become baptized into Christ? They are immediately
required and requested to be part of a local assembly. There's
not one instance in the Bible, in the New Testament, where a
group of people heard the gospel, received the gospel, made known
that they did believe the gospel in some way, and then were told
to go along their merry way, chip-chop-chip, see you later!
Lie. No, the believing ones were gathering
together in discipline. The believing ones were connected
together. You see, some people go, well, I've got to find the
right believing ones. Yes, you do. There are a lot
of different so-called believing ones. But beloved, there is no
congregation without error. There is no congregation without
unregenerate people. There is no congregation without
heresy. There is no congregation without sin. And the point of covenant devotion
and discipline is to listen to Christ, to do as He's called
us to do, and to give Him glory and praise when He works out
everything else. So what is fellowship? Fellowship,
biblically, koinonia in different variations of the term, means they have all things in
common. Now think about this for a second.
Verse 42, and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching. They
devoted themselves to the fellowship. They devoted themselves to the
breaking of bread and to prayer. And all came upon every soul.
And many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.
And all who believed were together and had all things in common.
And they were selling their possessions and they were selling their belongings
and they were distributing those proceeds to all of one another
as any had need. And day by day, attending Jewish
temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received
their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God, having
favor with their community. And the Lord added to their number
daily those who were being saved. and for
clarity's sake who were being born again. So here is biblical fellowship. First we see that fellowship
is a devotion. What is it? A devotion to. A
devotion to the apostles' teaching. Now keep in mind there were 13
apostles. the addition of Matthias to replace
Judas, and then the call of Paul. Paul was not yet here. So there were 12. And so here
we have the apostles, 12 men who had 15,000 church members
among them. The church had already grown,
3,000 more added in one sermon for Peter. Then all of a sudden,
the next day, people's lives are a little inundated. They
were used to that type of mass because the temple would hold
them. The temple was the centerpiece.
It wasn't open on Saturday. It was open every day. It was
something to do all the time. People gathered there. They prepared
for that Sabbath day to worship. They were devoted to that way
of life out of reverence, fear, and other things. The gospel
set them free, but yet it was still the place to be. Who were
teaching in the temple? Lots of folks. The priests and the Pharisees
and the Sadducees and everybody else there out there preaching
against the way, preaching against the Messiah, preaching against
Jesus, preaching against Jesus' people, and Jesus' people were
there to just be able to gather together in a normative way so
that they could hear the truth and learn a little more and ask
questions. Q&A is an invention of Jesus,
not present-day pastors. The AMA, I guess. Ask me anything. And so they were devoted to the
apostles teaching. So how were they devoted to the apostles?
How could tens of thousands of people devote themselves to the
teaching of 12 simple men? How could those 12 simple men
teach that many? They didn't. They taught others
who taught others who taught others. And then these congregations
went into the homes and these homes, every home had an elder
and every home had deacons who oversaw all the teaching that
went on there so that people would get the truth and correct
the error and just put on track misguided assumptions or philosophies.
Because everybody was inquiring what it is that this Jesus was
and what it is that he did and accomplished because not all
of that is able to be digested in one sitting. And the foreknowledge and the
understanding, the prior knowledge of the Jews was definitely Christocentric. but they couldn't see it without
the Spirit of God. In our culture that we live in now, in the United
States, we have what most people would call a Christocentric culture,
but it is not. It's an Antichrist culture. And
I'm talking about the Baptist churches, the Reformed churches,
the Sovereign Grace churches, and every other denomination
or non-denomination they're in. It's not Christocentric. It's
not centered on the truth of the Christ of the Bible. It's
centered on the Christ of culture. The Christ of culture in the
first century was a hero warrior to come and take the throne of
David and push out the enemies that we may be a holy priesthood
yet again. Not the suffering lamb who laid his life down because
his kingdom was not of this world. See, Christ created the world
in order to redeem his people from it. Not to establish it
for them. Theocracies are not biblical
as a promise. Israel is not the point, it's
the shadow. And so they devoted themselves
to the apostles' teaching. Timothy is being taught by Paul in these
letters that we're going through how the elders are supposed to
do that. We'll see in 2 Timothy, entrust to reliable men who will
teach others also. Make sure they're qualified.
1 Timothy, elders need to be qualified, deacons need to be
qualified. This is the ministry that they have. This is what
I command you to do in the midst of great frustration, false teaching,
division, hatred, backbiting. Put it to rest. Do that which
is prescribed. do that which is prescribed. So they devoted themselves to
the apostles teaching. One of the main points of the assembly is
that we devote ourselves to the teaching of the New Testament.
That's the point. We are to be a teaching church
and we are to be a learning church. And sometimes the principles
and the way they're taught, I grow as a teacher and I slide backward
as a teacher. And by the mercy of God, I go,
wow, nobody's understanding anything I'm trying to say. James, you're
an idiot. Just be simple. And if I have a conference call
with a bunch of my PhD buddies, you'll probably know it on a
Sunday. My vocabulary goes up. The syllables of my words start
to hit six and seven instead of two and three. It doesn't
matter. We're to be a learning and a
teaching church. The elders are to learn and the elders are to
teach. We don't wake up after the call and go, boom! This burn
in our brains just gives us all knowledge. We learn. We make
mistakes because we are thinking people living in a fallen sense. But yet we're redeemed by the
grace of God. So beloved, you need to be devoted to the apostles
teaching. Not the theological rigor. Not historical theology. Those are hobby things. Not what
this guy says and that guy. That's cool. What does the Bible
say? How dare we go beyond the Bible
when we don't have the Bible yet? I've never met a man yet in the
circles that I have walked in over the last two decades who
can't give some highbrow theological treatise on something. and the
labels therein. But yet when I say, will you
just describe in your own words the sense in which the church
ought to live together being baptized into Christ? Can you
express how you live that out as a believer with other people? And the best they can do is,
yeah, I got a systematic theological class, I do. Okay. Glad to know I play Monopoly. So they devote themselves to
the apostles teaching. That's what we do. First, what does that imply? We're together and to the fellowship
and to being together. To having all things in common,
which includes the truth. The truth. And when the truth is not found,
or a false truth, or a side truth, or a lie, or a mistake, or an
error, or a heresy, or whatever word you want to call it is found
among us, we just devote ourselves to the apostles' teaching, and
God corrects us. And there's nothing else to do
beyond that. Well now, because yesterday you said this, and
today now you say different, you're now saved. You were lost
yesterday. Hawk wash, that's garbage. That's
a cult. Yes, if you have believed a false
gospel and you come to the truth, yes, you're born again, finally.
But theological error isn't proven that you're unconverted. And
does it matter? Do you believe today the truth
of the gospel? Are you still holding on to some
tether of something you did? Are you holding on to some tether
of something you believed with better clarity? You know, when
I became a student of scripture, rather than just a student, there
was two or three years there that I'm like, I was born again
today. I must, this is when the spirit, because there's some
epiphanies that you have, and then you start to look back and
you go, things that you never even think about, the implications,
you go, oh my goodness, this was wicked, I must have been
lost. And I very well could have been.
You very well could have been. God doesn't go BOOM! This is the
day that you were saved. You know the day you were saved?
The day Jesus said it was finished. When was the day you believed?
To the praise of His glorious grace. You are His workmanship. One of the greatest idols in
America, in the American church, is a love affair with salvation
experiences, a love affair with theological distinctions, considering
them salvation experiences. And people that want to bark
about that and say, yeah, but you can't say, listen, folks,
if we have to explain every, if we have to have a caveat with
every breath we take, these people aren't ours. That's unloving
and it's unbiblical. The gospel is freedom unto life,
not a burden of worry. No believer rests under the shackles
of worrying that they'd have the gospel wrong. But don't we
have those seasons? When some knucklehead comes along
and tries to press that out of us? Things we've never thought
about, things that we shouldn't even be taught. That's the context of 1 Timothy.
Things that shouldn't be taught. What do we do? We devote ourselves
to the apostles' teaching. Not to Nehemiah. Good stuff there,
but you better read it in light of Paul. You better read Nehemiah
in the light of the gospel. Not to prove a point. The points
are best proven by the apostles. And to the teaching? of the apostles
and to the fellowship of the church, to the breaking of bread,
that's literally eating together because they had need. They had
need. Feeding each other. And then
at the end of the meal, taking what's left and remembering the
body and the blood of Jesus. You understand that? That's what
this table is supposed to be. It's supposed to be the scraps
at the end of the meal for us to remember Christ. But we don't have those
kind of needs anymore, do we? And to the prayers. See, we ponder more than we pray
and we wonder why God's promises aren't being fulfilled. I am
the world's best at it. I can have five years of conversation
and a good 15 minutes in my head. I can role play when I go to
sleep and wake up angry at people who I've never even talked to. And if I'm really good at it,
I can stew about it on my way to Statesboro. Can't believe
he would have said that to me. That's insanity, but it's what
our sin nature does. We take the index cards out,
and we have the Monday index card, and the Tuesday index card,
and the Wednesday index card, and the Thursday index card. And
sometimes we're going, oh my gosh, I've got to pray for three cards today, because
the last few days have been hard. And I've forgotten to eat or
pray. And we pray for these people. And then we leave them with the
Lord. We pray for one another, and we leave the outcome to the
Lord. And then where there is something we can do, we meet
those needs. But we pray. And when the church
of now 3,000 new members came along, they were received by
the apostles and the elders and the deacons and others, which,
you know, there weren't really any deacons at this point. We
see that over in Acts chapter 6. We see that what they did
is they took it at face value. We preach the gospel. You said
you believe it. Let's go. You're the church.
We're going to baptize. How long did it take to baptize
3,000 people? I don't know. But then they devoted themselves
to be under the teaching of the apostles. They devoted themselves
to be together intentionally, to eat together, to do the Lord's
table together, to pray together, and all came upon every soul. See, this is where we go. Yes,
let's go back to the first century and be the first church and I
want to be like this, I want to experience this, I want to
see miracles and wonders and signs coming through the apostles. Beloved, the apostles are gone.
The apostles' bodies are decomposing in the ground. As Peter already
said about David's body, we got his grave, we can go look at
it. Jesus, he's not there. So how do we have all? We've got Acts. This is all we need. We can look
at this. We can look at what the Lord
did. We can go to the Gospels and
we can see what God has done. We can go to Peter's writing. who alludes to creation, who
alludes to the exodus, who alludes even to pop culture. Every day has a pop culture. There was a pop culture. What
does that mean? Popular culture. There was a pop culture in first
century. It was literature and oratory and whatever the heck
they were talking about. Pop culture for Jews was high
religion and hedonism. Power and authority. Self-righteous
piety. Pop culture for the Greeks and
the Gentiles, depending on the culture, it was Renaissance,
it was creativity, it was poetry, it was philosophy, it was, you
know, I think therefore I am. Let's hear one of these wise
people talk about these things. It's, you know, TED Talks. I
love TED Talks. I can literally sit there and
watch them for hours. I don't care what they are. I just love
to listen to somebody say something about anything. Well. So how do we have all? We read
the Word of God. We devote ourselves to the apostles'
teaching, who teach us about the great power of God, who has
established, not yet in writing, during this actual narrative,
But soon, who will write the gospels, who will write the letters,
who will leave us this permanent divine work of holy writ, coupled
with the prophets of antiquity, now we have the full measure.
That's what the word canon means. We have the full measure of God's
glory and revelation in word. And it's almost in every language
known. It's a miracle. But the greater miracle is not
just to be in awe of our God in His salvation and redemption
and the display of His glory through all the signs and wonders,
the fact that He brought Lazarus from the dead, the fact that
He actually parted the sea, the fact that all this stuff exists
by His pleasure that He's spoken into being. That's amazing, but
the greater awe for the body of Christ is when we get together
with no affinity but Christ with no conditions but that which
God has promised us in Christ, and we are able to love one another
that the world says, I want that. They want the benefits of it.
See, that's what said, that favor with all people. See, the church
is not supposed to be antagonistic, ever. We are supposed to be hated for
our gentle, loving stand in a crooked generation. And the most crooked generation
that we live in today are the religious people. Not the lost. A fish that swims is not to be concerned. It shouldn't concern
you. It's not odd. A sinner that sins is not odd. A self-righteous person is odd.
That's a wicked thing that walks on two legs. It's demonic. And we think we're better than
others because we don't do this. We are literally mimicking the
very rebuke of condemnation that Jesus spoke in that parable.
Be careful. We should be in awe with the
Word of God. We should be in awe with the gathering. We should
be in awe with the truth. And the Spirit of God brings us together. And all who
believed were together, had all things in common, should be no
naked person in the church unless we're all naked. Hungry, unless
we're all hungry. Homeless, unless we're all homeless. Should never be like that. and
the responsibilities that we have to one another and to the
church as a whole. And we're going to talk about
those as God opens his word to us. And one of those things,
as we see here in the way of material possessions, some people
were selling their possessions. They weren't selling their possessions
unto homelessness, but they were selling their possessions in
order to turn them around so that other people may have their
needs met. And then daily, daily, daily
they did this. Now this isn't prescriptive in
the sense that this is commanded of us. This is what they did
because it's what they were used to doing. Daily they attended
the temple together. Now they've been attending the
temple, right? The temple was used in the outer courts and
places like that, like a mall. Anybody could go in there, Jew,
Gentile, you could do business, you could meet, you could have,
it's the coffee shops of first century, if I could say it loosely
in humor. But they met there because it
was a good place to meet. And they did so also in their homes. Okay, we've
learned a little bit today. Hey, you six wanna go to my house? I mean, my living room seats
eight comfortably. Five more chairs would put us
at a baker's dozen. Five more would be a crowd. Five
more would be a nightmare. And we've had more than that. 3,000 people don't fit in one
house, folks. All the saints within 100 square
miles of our center wouldn't fit in this building. We break bread in our homes as
we're able. In other words, we're helping feed each other. Where
they receive their food, and here's the point of this record. They receive their food
with gladness and with generous hearts. You know what that doesn't
include? Entitlement. You know what we're entitled
to? Without grace, death. It's what we deserve. It is the
wage that we have already earned. It is a law that we must be paid
for that which we earn, that which we earn, for that we work
for. So, when we receive the grace of God and the unity of
the Spirit and the truth of the Gospel by the Spirit of God Himself,
when we come together, we do so with generous hearts and with
gladness. And beloved, you know that's
the hardest thing to do. True fellowship is meeting needs,
being together in the learning of the Scripture with gladness, with generous hearts. Why? Because if the King of Glory
gave you all His riches, would you not be generous? Well, He did. He did. And so then the verse
47, it shows us there that in the same sentence, they were
praising God. The outflow of grace is worship. The outflow of knowing the glory
of God in Christ, the riches of the gospel is worship, praising
Him, thanking Him. excited about, and what is excitement? It's a state of mind. Some people
get excited and they scream and dance. Some people get excited
and they just have an inner smile that's not visible on their face. It doesn't erase the pain of
life. It doesn't make everything right. Fellowship isn't going
to fix all the problems. If we're all hungry and sick
and dying, we're all going to be hungry and sick and dying
with gladness. And that's not giddiness. Like Peter would say,
sometimes it's joy that is inexpressible. Because our eyes are on that
which is true fellowship, which is the point of the church. Having
fellowship is because God came down from glory and created a
body for Himself. And took on the fullness and
the trueness of humanity in order that He might have fellowship
with His people in a true, judicial, holy intimacy. So that's what being in the church
is all about. And beloved, it's not an option. It's not a choice we make. It's
who we are, you know? Back to the fish. When we look
at a fish that's out of the water with very few variants of biology,
most fish die. All believers die. when they disobey the prescribed
joy-filled promises of Christ. Sometimes fellowship is nothing
but mourning. And I could go all through Scripture.
I mean, I could go through the entire... I literally could start
right now and go through every letter and point out hundreds
of verses about how we ought to relate to one another. Weep
with those who weep, rejoice with those who rejoice. But as Paul would say, do not
neglect the gathering together as some are in the habit of doing,
but gather together as often as you can. Gather together that
you might what? Encourage one another. In what? Everything. That's hard, isn't
it? Because we find safety in affinity. We find safety in culture. We
find safety in ideologies. We find safety in our philosophies.
We find safety in our politics. We find safety in our grievances. Because we find affinity there.
But beloved, the church has no room for that. We don't have
room because we're diverse. There is no Christian politic.
There's no such thing. I don't care how many books have
been written on this. It's hogwash. There is no Christian education.
I mean, I remember thinking that,
you know, home education, that was God's way. Huh? Not necessarily. Praise be to
God when we can. And it'd be a lot easier just
to ship them off. But praise be to God no matter
what we choose to do. We don't burden each other. You
see what I'm saying? Just little things that Robin and I have dealt with
through the years. Grinding your own wheat. Wearing certain types of clothes.
Not having pictures of family on the wall. Silly stuff, isn't
it? We haven't dealt with that one. So we get together and we praise
God together and when we do these things God's Joy becomes ours
in the midst of anything. Our affinity is the gospel and
its joy-filled power. Our affinity is the patience
of Christ and the mind of Christ who is long-suffering forever
with His people. Isn't that funny? We have a limit,
don't we? I'm a haddock. I've had it. And it always gets bigger, doesn't
it? I've had it. I've had it up to here. This
was my limit. You crossed it. Where is God's
limit? It is no limit in patience for
His people. Temporally, absolutely. We see
it all the way in Scripture. God has a purpose and a timing
and an eternal decree and it will all come to pass as He sees
fit for our good and for our joy and for His name. But beloved, we've got to have
patience with each other. We've got to go to Ephesians and learn
to speak the truth in love. Not about molding each other
to look like we want each other to look, but making sure that
everyone is encouraged to stay the task. And that when we do
that which God has called us to, God will get to what they
call the get-tos. He will get to this, and He will
get to that, and He will get to that in His timing. And we
aren't the ones who are supposed to press and make anybody else
look like we think they ought to look in the timing that we
think they ought to look. That's fellowship. Patiently riding
this world together in the gospel, loving one another, worshiping,
coming to the Lord's day, encouraging each other not to neglect it
because through it and through our relationships from this point
every single week, will come great and mighty works and wonders. And when Jesus says, you will
do greater works than these, we know the initial context there
is the fact that the apostles would continue in the apostolic
ministry of Christ and God would do mighty things.
and then in being the church that is devoted to this teaching
and to live it out. The teaching is not just for
us to know about it. The teaching is for us to do
it. God gave the apostles and the prophets and the teachers
and the pastors and the overseers in order to equip the church
to do the work of the ministry. And that's the book of James.
That's the letter that James sent to the Jews in the dysphoria. That's the point. You are the
beloved. You are the elect, but you're
not doing anything. You're not living correctly. You are not working. Faith without works
is a dead faith. Does it mean that you're what?
You're an unbeliever? No. Does it mean you're lost?
No. It just means you're worthless. Let me leave you with some thoughts. Peter writes some letters to
the church. And in his second epistle, he
starts in verse 2. He says that God's divine power
has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.
through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory
and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and
very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers
of the divine nature. Having escaped from the corruption
that is in the world because of sinful desire, for this very
reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue,
with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with
self-control, Is self-control a cognitive thing that you've
learned about, or is self-control something that you do? With steadfastness,
is steadfastness a theory that you can posit on, or is it something
that you do? And steadfastness with godliness,
and godliness with brotherly affection, is affection this
poetic thing that we opine over, or is affection something that
we do? And brotherly affection with love, for if these qualities
are yours and increasing, They keep you from being ineffective
or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. So,
okay, you understand the gospel, beloved, but when we aren't living
the gospel according to God's commands, we're worthless. Paul says that in 1 Corinthians
13, doesn't he? We're just worthless. It's like the clanging cymbal
in the middle of a song. It doesn't fit. Clang, clang,
clang. Gotta get more cowbell stuff. For whoever lacks these qualities
is so nearsighted that he's blind, having forgotten, not that he's
lost it, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former
sins, forgotten that he was regenerated, forgotten that he was saved,
redeemed. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm
your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities,
you'll never fall. For in this way, there will be richly provided
to you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior
Jesus." These aren't conditions unto eternal life. In other words,
in this path, living this life as the church, we are working
out our salvation, trusting fully in the sovereignty of God only.
but living out in obedience and patience and love and fellowship
until the day we enter into heaven. It's very simple. Therefore,
I intend always to remind you of these qualities though you
know them and you're established in the truth that you have. I
think it is right as long as I am alive in this body to stir
you up by way of reminder since I know that I will soon die.
as your Lord Jesus has made clear to me. And I will make every
effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to
recall these things." And that is the writing of this letter.
Beloved, we're here today to be reminded about our Gospel,
our Savior, and His glory, and be reminded and taught and instructed
and exhorted to live it out. And I said dysphoria instead
of dyspersia. That just hit me. That word didn't feel right in
my tongue. Dispersion. Let's pray. Father, we are glad
that we are no longer aliens. We are no longer lost. We are
no longer aliens, but we're no longer far away. You have brought us near by the
blood of Christ. You have taught us who you are.
You've given us by your spirit the truth of the gospel and caused
us to change our thinking and to believe in the gospel. Lord,
you've caused us to see all of the other ways in which we thought
were life are not. You've given us that gift of
repentance through faith. Father, you have granted us understanding. So help us to stay simple in
the economy of grace, to know that your work and your word
establishes all your power for your people. that your promises
and purposes for us on this earth are clearly laid out. And so
as we come to the close of our service, as we take the table
together, Lord, let us truly take it together to taste and
see that you are good, to remember that Christ was given in the
flesh for us. And that one day we will be together
without sin, without sickness, without sorrow, because we will
be with our Savior as one body forever beholding his face. Until that day, Lord, we thank
you for the teaching of your word and for your patience and
for your love for us. In Christ we pray, Amen.